The King's Speech

There are those people in life, like my friends Brit and Grant, that somehow only seem to see good movies. Their taste is always impeccable; often they would choose a movie I was skeptical about, but it always ended up being just SO good. Then there are people like me, who always seems to pick the worst movies ever....like Silent Running and the new Clash of the Titans. So when I saw that Brit recommended the movie The King's Speech, I knew it had to be good. But, like normal, I kept putting it off. I have forgotten about many sure-to-be-good movies that way, so I was super grateful when our friends Jon and Ellen wanted to go see it.

And it was far better than good. It was great.

Superficially, the clothes and backdrops were beautiful (the hair, not so much, but it was true to the period). The acting was superb, something one would expect from a great cast such as this. The juxtaposition of something we* can't relate to - royalty - with something we can all relate to - work pressures and feelings of not being good enough - was what really moved this movie into the "best picture" realm. And that it was a true story just made it all the better.

I should tell you that we saw The King's Speech the Saturday before it won the Oscar for best picture of the year, and I was rooting for it that night. And not just because it would mean I would be closer to checking off the motion picture winners item off of my list (though that was part of it). I was rooting for it because I wanted a great, real-life, inspiring, family** movie to win. If you haven't seen it yet, don't let it pass you by.

On a side note, a couple whose seats were next to us in the theater (it was a packed, little theater) randomly sat in front of us at church the next day - and we go to a really, really big church. They were on vacation from New York for the weekend. Just kind of crazy.

*In this instance, I guess that would be the opposite of the "royal we", perhaps the "commoner we." If you are part of the "royal we", please know that I am not referring to you. And that I would like to meet you. And go to the royal wedding. I'm just saying.

**Yes, I know that it is rated R, but that is just because in one sequence the speech therapist has him say a string of curse words which includes the F-word. Other than that, it would probably be PG. I think. But maybe don't take the kids the first time just in case.